Golden Gate to Death Maybe

I was reading one of the magazines that was left on one of our flights, and luckly it was a magazine that I actually like. Normally I get to read US Weekly, or People or something like that. Problem with that is I really don't care about if Brittney Spears is wearing a pink shirt with purple pants while shopping at Whole Foods. I lucked out this time and got a good one.

As we were flying to Austin from Washington, DC I came across an article that morbidly grabbed my interest. It was about a man who tried to commit suicide, but survived, and it was about his story, along with the growing epidemic of suicides in males. In fact it is now the 8th leading cause of death of all males. The guy in the article attempted by jumping off the Golden Gate bridge, which if you don't know happens to be a fairly hot spot for suicide attempts. In fact since the bridge opened in 1937, an average of one attempt occurs every two weeks, making the total attempts reaching over 2,000. Of that number, 28 survived, including the man in the article. The article was very well written, and it covered a lot of information about depression and warning signs, and so on. But what really caught my attention was the fact that he was on a drug "Accutane" when he tried to commit suicide.

There was a large section of the the article dedicated to certain drugs and the fact that they can trigger suicidal thoughts and behaviors. I am sure most people have heard, ironically, that some anti-depressants have caused some, especially those between 18-24 years old, a developing suicidal thought pattern. There were many other drugs discussed, from stop-smoking drugs, to ADHD drugs, to drugs used to treat Hepatitis, cancer, and Parkinson's disease. And then there was Accutane. According to the article, the FDA has reportedly linked the drug to dozens of sucessful suicides and hundreds additional attempts. Now, when I was on the drug, although I don't remember feeling any differently, talk to my mom. She will swear I was a different person on that drug.

I am sure my sister has a lot to say about this. Her knowledge on this is much deeper than mine, from reading a 4 page article, but it makes you think.

The other thing the article touched on was why the trend was increasing in males, especially those ages 25-50. There were a couple main reasons. The first being our current state in this country. Unemployment levels are very high, with all signs pointing for a increase of another couple percentage points. Money is tight, and homes are being forclosed left and right. I guess that is a lot for anyone to take. Teh second reason was the confilct overseas. There have been 24,000+ suicide attempts reported by the US MIlitary since 2001. That seems be to a sure tale sign that something needs to be done to help our soldiers when they return home. The other thing is, that even though females attempt suicide at a rate of about 5 to 1 vs males, males succeed at a much higher rate. The culpurt behind that, is most females tend to take medications, and can be saved, but most males tend to be much more finaliazing with their methods. The number one choice was by gun.

Now, I am not trying to be a downer, but rather bring some light to a subject that I too did not realize was as big of an issue as it appears to be.